Intrigue, Fantasy, Life.
James Moinet is a student at the Cardiff School of Art and Design, in his third year studying art; concentrating on painting. Here he talks about sentimentality, everyday influences and the exciting new opportunity to exhibit in Amsterdam...
First of all, tell us a bit about your art- what does it mean to you?
My current project uses as a subject a whole bunch of slides I found in my loft recently. They belonged to my dad who made them when he was living and working in Antarctica in 1974-75. They’re photographs of all sorts of things, such as the Antarctic landscape, the wildlife, vehicles that would have been used in the snow, my Dad and his colleagues at work and play, etc., etc. They’re not particularly professional or anything – my dad wasn’t much of an artist, but I think this adds to their charm – they sort of resemble the sort of thing you’d see on Facebook – I’m pretty sure Dad made the slides as a means of showing his friends and family what he’d gotten up to whilst out there, which is the purpose of Facebook I suppose! My dad died 3 years ago so obviously there is a lot of room for sentimentality here. It’s something I want to avoid – I don’t really want to make pictures about my father and I don’t even really want to make pictures about Antarctica. It’s simply about the slides and my perception of them. I have been making lots of drawings, watercolours, doodles really of the slides, and I can see patterns forming, characters emerging, perhaps a vein of narrative running through the whole thing. I basically want to create a fictional world that uses the pictures my Dad made as a sort of frame, a basis from which I can paint almost anything, no matter how fantastical!
How did you go about getting your work exhibited in Amsterdam?
Basically I’m one of a group of five students from the second and third years of the painting department of Cardiff School of Art and Design, who’ve been selected to show their work in the Hans Brinker Hotel in Amsterdam, along with students from several other Universities in the UK and Netherlands. I don’t really know much about it at the moment – it should be a good experience though.
What made you decide to paint in this particular style?
In regard to the painting process I use, I am really trying everything at the moment, using all sorts of processes and materials. What I’ve realised though is that I need to make paintings in which the subject sits within the medium, where neither the image nor the plasticity of the medium is most important, but the two sit equally within the paintings and rub shoulders in a constant dialogue.
Do you have a particular influence?
I’m finding that almost everything influences me, or at least interests me, at the moment. Just on a simple walk to the shop I’ll think of a bunch things to make a note of, which I’ll probably then forget by the time I get home! I love story-telling in all its forms- films, novels, TV, poetry, music- all these things influence the way I think about making paintings.
Your landscapes are very traditional compared to a lot of contemporary art. How do you feel about more conceptual pieces?
Although the paintings I had been making previously appeared “traditional”, that wasn’t something that I consciously attempted to achieve, it was just something that I allowed to happen that perhaps I shouldn’t have. I think the “traditional” look came from worrying too much about whether “something looked right”, or “the colours were correct”, etc., which resulted in polite, nice paintings, in which my original concept, that is, the cinematic quality of the landscape and its fantastical qualities, was all but lost. I don’t think there is a point to making paintings unless they have some underlying concept, unless your motives are entirely selfish. So yeah- contemporary art, conceptual art – it’s all great, I don’t really divide things into categories of conceptual or not or contemporary or not. It’s just stuff I like and stuff I don’t.
Do you have an ultimate goal as an artist- is there one thing or place that you would love to draw or paint above anything else?
Really I’d just love to travel abroad and experience some Foreign landscapes. America in particular attracts me – something about the hugeness of it, with such a wide variety of climates and landscapes and people and cultures.
What drew you to art in the first place? (Excuse the pun!)
I’ve always enjoyed drawing for as long as I can remember. It’s kind of naturally progressed since there.
Do you think of yourself entirely as a painter, or is there another medium that you would be interested to explore?
I do think of myself as a painter, but if ever I felt that another medium would be a better vehicle for my ideas I wouldn’t hesitate to try it.
Do you have a favourite piece among your own paintings? Why?
I’m quite pleased with a small series of paintings I did on wood panels recently. I wanted to make some paintings that referenced the medium of photography, and I think they turned out quite well – very simple to make (they took almost no time at all) and for me they bring the plastic properties of paint to the fore, as much as the images contained within.
What is the art scene like in South Wales for an emerging artist? Is it a good place to be in terms of furthering your career?
There are lots of great galleries around Cardiff and plenty of people to go and look at them. Like anything though, nothing happens overnight. It’ll probably work in my favour that I went to University in Cardiff and hopefully I can integrate myself within the local art scene.
Are there any other artists that you would like to collaborate with? Famous or otherwise.
Not really!
Where would be your dream place to exhibit?
Anywhere that’d have me at the moment.
Some artists like to decide on a meaning for their pieces, whereas some prefer to let the viewer decide what it means to them. How do you rate the responses to your art?
If people understand what I’m trying to achieve when they look at my paintings that’s great. If they don’t, that’s fine too!
What is your process for creating a painting?
Currently I’ll start with the slide images I have. I‘ll make numerous watercolours, drawing and doodles of them, filter them through my imagination along with everything that interests me that might be relevant or not and hopefully emerge with some workable images in my head. When it comes to the execution of a painting, really anything goes!